Quartzite is a harder material than granite, but they are comparable in appearance and both natural materials. We opt for quartzite in most of our homes, this one was quite popular with quartzite countertops: http://www.houzz.com/projects/465915/charlesmark-canals-landing

The quartzite/Silestone in my kitchen is 11 years old (I've only lived here for two years). It still looks great!!!

I would advise against granite whatever the choice is. I hear quartz & quartzite/Silestone is more user friendly & needs less maintenance. Even marble needs a lot of care. If you like marble as so many do, you can get the same look & pattern in a quartz. If money was no object for me I would choose soapstone. Classic, gorgeous, wears well, many shades of color.

Granite sealed properly will resist stains better than quartzite and should not need to be revealed. Quartzite will scratch more easily and is much more expensive. Marble is very sensitive to stains etc but beautiful. Quartzite is harder and you should be able to put hot things on it where most people would advise you not to with granite.

Silestone and quartzite are NOT the same thing at all. Silestone is an engineered product. Quartzite is a natural stone. Out of the choices of granite, Silestone, marble, quartzite, and soapstone - for durability I would rank them in this order: Soapstone, granite, Silestone (close tie with granite), quartzite and finally marble. We have not had a good experience with the quartzite top on our island (thank goodness we didn't do the entire kitchen in it!). We are replacing it with honed granite. Our kitchen counter tops are soapstone and we LOVE them. They take a lickin' and keep on tickin'!